UP-SCALING CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE WITH TREES (CAWT) TECHNIQUES TO COMBAT HUNGER

Givemore Zambasa has been a lead farmer in his community since 2010. He is among the 325 lead farmers who have been trained in Conservation Agriculture With Trees (CAWT) technologies through the UBALE project. UBALE, is a USAID Office of Food for Peace-funded project (implemented by CARE in Nsanje District) that works to increase the productivity of profitable and nutritious crops for smallholder farmers by encouraging the use of sustainable and productive growing techniques.

Zambasa has worked with the UBALE project since its inception in 2015. The project’s interventions, particularly the use of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) techniques have helped improve life for Zambasa and his family, resulting in a transformation in both his field and his family’s livelihood.

Zambasa’s community is located in the Nsanje District of southern Malawi where soil degradation and unfavorable weather patterns conditions result in poor growing conditions and limited harvests. Before the emergence of UBALE project, Zambasa’s one-acre field was not able to provide enough food for his family and year after year they anticipated continuous hunger. To help improve sustainable crop yields, the UBALE project taught the farmers various conservation methods including the CAWT techniques. The UBALE project encouraged the farmers to mulch their entire fields and to start intercropping Gliricidia trees with pigeon peas. The roots of the Gliricidia trees provide irrigation channels that allow water to pass through the entire field ensuring the field remains moist, while also supplying humus that keeps the soil soft for planting and growing. The mulching helps improve water retention in the field, which allowed for the introduction of relay cropping (planting of a new crop in the same field before the main crop is harvested). Zambasa explains that he has been able to plant cow peas when maize and sorghum are about to be harvested: “Relay cropping has helped increase the number of crops that I plant in my field. This season though the rains stopped earlier and I planted cow peas and pigeon pea… I am sure of having a bumper yield since the soils have enough moisture”.

Zambasa tells how he originally doubted the CAWT techniques because the concept seemed too simple and therefore too good to believe: “Planting crops with trees to improve soil fertility? That never made any sense to me because throughout my life, I had always farmed without any mulching or any tree in the field. Little did I know that practicing such for a short period would ensure more harvests and fertile soils”.

Initially, Zambasa was unsure of the agricultural techniques suggested by the agriculture supervisors so he permitted the use of only one quarter of his field where land was the most degraded. Zambasa witnessed a transformation in his quarter acre “demo” plot. He produced more in just a quarter of the field than what he previously harvested in his entire one-acre field. The increased harvest motivated Zambasa to apply the use of CSA and CWAT techniques to his entire field.

Three years later Zambasa’s entire field has been transformed and he continues to see his harvests increase. In addition to increasing the main crops, Zambasa is benefitting from the emergence of amaranthus and mushrooms, which is a clear indication of more nutrients in the soil. These have not only provided additional food for his family, but it has also provided vegetables to sell at the local market. Zambasa speaks of the benefits to his livelihood by saying: “I have made money through selling of the vegetables grown in my field. My family has also benefitted through the nutrient provision of vegetables. This is a privilege which we were not able to enjoy from this farm and we hope for more provisions as my family can be supported from the finances realized. We can now afford school necessities for our children and to buy a home”.

Zambasa's has advanced in his plans to upscale the CAWT techniques (mulching and planting of Gliricidia). He also intends to establish live fencing around his entire field and will further practice crop diversification throughout the field. Zambasa has approximately 30 “follower farmers” who are keen to learn from him and apply the same CWAT techniques in their fields. Zambasa now praises the use of the CAWT techniques shown to him by the UBALE project: “upscaling these technologies is the best thing a modern farmer should do to wave goodbye to fruitless years in agriculture. We are sure that if all farmers followed this path now, there is a future of bumper harvests and hunger will be history while household food and nutrition security will improve in Nsanje”.

Zambasa's wife proudly showcases the crop success which has resulted from applying the CSA and CWAT tecqniques.